A team investigating how nursing homes can best meet the unique care needs of patients with obesity has been awarded $2 million by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to conduct a five-year study.
The grant will fund a national survey of nursing homes to identify the greatest concerns involving care for these patients, who account for 30% of nursing home residents, the researchers said. The investigators will also observe care delivery at approximately 50 facilities, interviewing caregivers, administrators, residents and family members. The idea is to gauge preparedness and learn response strategies, unearthing best practices that can then serve as a model for others.
“If we can find out what they’re doing, we can disseminate that to those that haven’t had as much experience,” said Nicholas Castle, Ph.D., of West Virginia University’s School of Public Health, in a statement.
The team will also examine the relationship between care strategies and negative health outcomes such as pressure ulcers, urinary tract infections and hospital readmissions in obese residents. The eventual goal is to develop a toolkit to help nursing homes accommodate such residents. “It might be staffing, but it might be some instrumentation that they have in the rooms. It might be wider doors, but it also might be training. We don’t know yet,” Castle said.
The new initiative builds on the team’s prior research, which found high concentrations of obese residents correlate to lower staffing levels, higher occupancy, higher bed capacity, and multi-facility affiliation (there was no relationship between obesity prevalence rate and for-profit status). In fact, some nursing homes conceded that they avoid accepting residents with obesity, the researchers reported. “You would think that more nurse aides would be needed to help, not fewer,” Castle said.
In addition to Castle, the grant recipient team includes John Engberg, a senior economist with the RAND Corporation, and lead researcher John Harris, M.D., of the University of Pittsburgh.
